I don't understand what is happening in my own country right now. We've gone from being semi-free (especially in comparison to other countries) to implementing all of these Orwellian policies and legislations in what feels like a blink of an eye.

First the metadata retention scheme and now a three strikes policy, feels like they would easily go hand-in-hand. Not to mention the blocking legislation (http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/no-limi...) that will allow websites like The Pirate Bay to be blocked (like the UK implemented and has failed). So, we get Netflix and now all of a sudden people have no reason to download anymore, so they introduce these bills which will never work. What is happening to this beautiful country?

Wait until the TPP comes into play, we'll see things ramped up ten-fold. It is time to VPN up my fellow Australians because things are getting serious and rather quickly too.

It was time to splash out on a VPN (something between 1/20th and 1/20th of the average Strine citizen's ISP outlay per year) about 5 years ago.

It's a trivial cost compared to the protection it provides against government [sponsored] monitoring, totally regardless of, and aside from, any legality questions surrounding your specific on-line actions.

I know exactly what you mean, and I feel much the same way. It seems like such a short time ago that these sorts of laws would be impossible to pass here.

The EFA needs to become a much stronger lobby group - with the fall of iiNet there's no commercial entity who will stand up for our digital rights.